Tim Walz was Kamala Harris’s strongest choice for vice president out of her shortlist of potential candidates—which is why the decision to add him to her ticket feels so out of character for the Democratic Party. In more ways than one, the Minnesota governor isn’t a conservative pick; he was neither the safe, pundit-friendly choice nor an exceptionally moderate figure. The former football coach’s brand of politics is best described as left-populism-lite. Imagine a state-fair version of Bernie Sanders who wears a camo hunting hat and listens to Car Talk instead of Democracy Now!
But it isn’t all talk. Last year, Walz’s DFL Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party adopted the motto of LFG (“let’s fucking go”) and swung for the fences, advancing a legislative agenda through the Minnesota statehouse that—depending on which side of the aisle you were on—was either “transformational” or “bonkers.” Walz’s record isn’t all home runs, but his pro-labor, pro-working-family achievements are significant. Somewhere, the Democratic establishment’s neoliberals weep.